National champion Dhruv Sitwala and Dhvaj Haria, both left-handed cueist were on song and in convincing fashion won their respective pre-quarter-final matches in the All India CCI Billiards Classic 2024, played at the CCI’s Wilson Jones billiards hall on Saturday.
The India No. 1 Sitwala enjoyed smooth sailing and cruised past seasoned pro Arun Agrawal by 979-399 point margin. The Mumbai-based Sitwala produced a single sizeable break of 296 and had smaller runs of 60, 62, 76, 71 and 94.
Later in the evening, the tall and lanky Haria was in great nick and constructed a high break of 399 and went on to sideline last year’s runner-up Rob Hall of England 1055-425 to join Sitwala in the last eight. The Gujarat-based Haria had two more century efforts of 159 and 131 and a couple of breaks of 85, 55 and 53. While Hall, who was down with a stomach bug, could only muster breaks of 65, 80 and 94.
Strong favourite and reigning champion Pankaj Advani continued to rule the roost as he outclassed Aditya Agrawal by recording a resounding 1236-428 victory to move closer to the defense of his title. The World champion Advani had things much his own way as he started with a neat break of 258 and then constructed a solid 365 to knock the fight out of Agrawal. Advani had two more centuries of 111 and 197 and breaks of 72, 66 and 77 to run away with the match. Agrawal had breaks of 103, 89 and 71.
In another last 16 match between two former Indian National champions Sourav Kothari and S. Shrikrishna, the latter came up with a last-ditch effort rolling in an unfinished break of 78 points to snatch a come-from-behind 492-473 victory and a place in the quarter-finals. Shrikrishna had earlier made a 151 break while Kothari’s best was 96 and 92.
However, England’s ace billiards player David Causier was in terrific form and all charged up as he demolished India’s Kamal Chawla winning by a resounding 1422-306 difference in another pre-quarter-final contest. Causier, a nine-time World, played at a rapid pace and gave an excellent exhibition of precision play and consistency as he constructed a sequence of massive breaks of 249, 220, 354, 124, 99, 94, 62 and 74. Chawla had just two big efforts of 51 and 56.
Mumbai youngster Raayan Razmi played with plenty of resilience to stun former champion Siddharth Parikh by a close 606-519 scoreline in another last 16 match.
Results – Pre-quarter-finals: David Causier (Eng) beat Kamal Chawla (Ind) 1422-306; S. Shrikrishna (Ind) beat Sourav Kothari (Ind) 492-473; Raayan Razmi (Ind) beat Siddharth Parikh (Ind) 606-519; Dhvaj Haria (Ind) beat Rob Hall (Eng) 1055-425; Dhruv Sitwala (Ind) beat Arun Agrawal (Ind) 979-399; Peter Gilchrist (Sin) beat Rohan Jambusaria (Ind) 900-493; Peter Sheehan (Eng) bt Rupesh Shah (Ind) 738-583; Pankaj Advani (Ind) beat Aditya Agrawal (Ind) 1236-428.
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